The Web Font Awards: Back for 2011

Yesterday, we opened up the call for entries to the 2011 Web Font Awards. If you’re just learning about it for the first time (and haven’t already guessed), the Web Font Awards is a design competition for websites using Web fonts. Entrants compete for two prizes. Our Community Choice winner goes to the site with the highest rating on webfontawards.com. Anyone can rate a site by creating a free account. Let your voice be heard. Our Judges’ Choice award will be determined American Idol-style by a live panel of judges at the Future of Web Design New York conference in November. Our winners will receive a hefty take that includes a trip to the Future of Web Design London conference in 2012, an iPad® 2 device, a subscription to Fonts.com Web Fonts and other prizes.

If you’re familiar with the Web Font Awards, let me catch you up on what’s new with this year’s competition.

New breed of entrants
A lot has changed in a year. While we’re still in the early phases of adoption, there are far more users and many more recognizable brands leveraging this exciting technology than just one year ago. Visit webfontawards.com frequently to see who.

Increase the power of your vote
Everyone has a vote in our Community Choice award, but not all will be created equal. Make sure yours carries as much weight as possible! In order to stimulate engagement in the competition as well as fair voting practices, we’ve built in some controls that will allow you to increase your influence. Those who contribute designs, vote frequently, vote fairly and share info with us that tell us you’re not a robot, will be rewarded by having their votes worth more.

Share your siteIf you contribute your design, you’ll find code for a handy promotional widget on your contribution page. Add the code to your own site to present a snapshot of your entry and its current rating to your visitors and encourage them to rate your site. Each submission page also includes a host of sharing tools to promote entrants through the social avenue of your choice.

We hope you enjoy the competition. Now get out there and submit, rate, and enjoy!

Johnathan Zsittnik is the eCommerce Marketing Manager at Monotype Imaging. Johnathan holds both a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in business administration from Bentley University.